Last year I was very let down to hear that the Eagles had tossed all but one of the new songs from their set and gone back to playing much shorter, hits only shows. For fans of their most recent release, 2007's Long Road Out of Eden, this was a big disappointment. A travesty, really! How can you take a fantastic album such as this and pretend it never existed?

When it was announced that this year's tour would be following the theme of their recent Showtime special, History of the Eagles, and maybe even bringing back some former members, I was calmed down a little. Now THIS I absolutely HAD to go see!

And even though I had a bad cold that was getting worse and just wanted to go home after work and collapse, the lure of this show was still too great. Even though Philadelphia, it seems, has almost singled me out (I swear this is true sometimes!) to hassle almost every time I dare put so much as a toe into the city with tickets, parking fines, etc., even when you are parking in a parking area in a public park where you've done so, without incident, for THIRTY YEARS. But I digress......

We lucked out with the tickets. Even though the show was marked as a sell out, there were $57 tickets right up near the stage. They were marked as "limited view" but once all the curtains came down, we could see everything except the big screens and the front view of the guys playing their axes. I was fine with this since just about everything today is recorded and this tour will, no doubt, be on DVD in a few months..or on youtube tomorrow......

J.D. & the Straight Shot was the opening band and I recall them also doing the honors seven years ago down in Atlantic City for Joe Walsh on his James Gang reunion tour. Don't recall a female fiddler in the band then. I think she's a recent addition. And she brought alot to the table too...enabling the group to play stuff like "White Bird" from It's a Beautiful Day. A nice mix of classic cover songs and originals.

At eight sharp, Glenn Frey & Don Henley hit the stage with acoustic guitars to play the beautiful "Saturday Night"....one of my faves from the Desperado album. At the end, I heard a mandolin and suddenly original Eagle BERNIE LEADON was there and joining them for the next song, Train Leaves Here This Morning (a song Bernie wrote with ex-Byrd Gene Clark that he used to play with Dillard & Clark and later with the Eagles). "Bernie, where ya been"? Glenn asked. I thought Bernie was going to say, "SURFIN." But I'm sure only a small handful of us diehards would've gotten the joke. Bernie just answered awkwardly.."Ohh, on the road.."

Bernie stayed on stage till the end of the first hour's set. Then he returned to play on "Take It Easy" during the encores. But I was surprised he didn't play banjo on it, like he did originally on the record.

Glenn introduced "Peaceful Easy Feeling" saying that he'd received a cassette of a song from his friend, Jack Tempchin, in the mail. "And then......Timothy Schmit appeared..." Timothy made a face and I think he was apologizing for coming out too quickly before Glenn ended the story.

Joe Walsh came on right before the band launched into Bernie & Don Henley's masterpiece, "Witchy Woman" and it was great to see the guys play songs we haven't heard played in years. And a great treat to finally see the great Bernie Leadon play. Reportedly, the band had wanted to bring Randy Meisner back too. But Glenn said that Randy had been "under the weather but doing alot better now." He dedicated the first set closer, "Take it to the Limit" to Randy.

The second set, which ran from 9:20 to just before 11:00, featured much more familiar territory but still had it's share of surprises..like Joe's "Pretty Maids All in a Row" from Hotel California and the talk box duet guitars, handled by Joe and Steuart Smith for The Long Run's "Those Shoes". And I always love to hear Joe sing "In the City" and run up to play organ when Timothy sings the beautiful "I Can't Tell You Why".

And Joe playfully changed the words around on "Life's Been Good" for us Phillyites, singing "I HAVE A CHEESESTEAK THEN SEND OUT FOR MORE..."

All the guys were in fine voice tonight, particularly Don Henley, who's lost NOTHING. Glenn was noticeably straining on a few notes at the end of "New Kid in Town" while Timothy was a bit nasal at times on "I Can't Tell You Why", but they were both fine overall, as was Joe.

Just after "The Long Run", Joe and Glenn began a guitar duel that Glenn kept up with until Joe began one of his lightning fingered fret board runs, Glenn pretended to be confused and bent down to look at Joe's fingers as we all laughed. I thought it might be the intro to "Get Over It' or "Funk #49", It turned out to be "Funk #49" and "Get" was not played.

I'm happy to see that the guys have wisely dumped the horn section for this tour. Not that I thought they played badly or anything but I always thought it was a bit overkill. I mean this is the Eagles not Chicago or Blood Sweat & Tears.

After a second encore (joined once again by Bernie Leadon) of "Take It Easy", "Rocky Mountain Way" and "Desperado", the show was done, leaving us all to wonder what's next for the band? Will they do another CD, more tours or call it a day again? We'll just have to wait and see....

13. Wasted Time (Instrumental Reprise on tape)14. Pretty Maids All In A Row 15. I Can't Tell You Why 16. New Kid In Town 17. Love Will Keep Us Alive 18. Heartache Tonight 19. Those Shoes 20. In The City 21. Life's Been Good 22. The Long Run23. Funk #49 24. Life In The Fast Lane